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Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Going hand in hand with the news that we will actually have some real live Footbaw weather this weekend is the news that there will also be real live football to when not watching the Frogs. No more WVU/Baylor loldefense fests. No more Texas/Okie, jr referee conspiracy bowls. And you better believe we'll only mention the Big Ten here at Spitblood at gunpoint... or if their flagship program schedules a home and home with us... or if it's pertinent to the preview... BUT THEY'll NEVER MAKE THE NATIONALLY PROMINENT SECTION, THAT'S FOR SURE!. Shut up, leave me alone.

Frogs are 15th.

Game of the Week, Direct Impact - Lurker: Ugh, SO many. Literally every game in the 16-20 spot. You've got #16 Clemsonplaying a badGeorgia Tech team. With Clemson's only loss coming against #3 Florida State, they're primed for a jump. #17 Oklahoma plays Tech. This is a very hard to game gauge as Tech has been known to beat OU when they shouldn't from time to time, and they probably shouldn't here. Like Clemson, OU's only loss came to a highly ranked team (#7 KSU), so a win over undefeated Tech on the road could move them up, even with a TCU win. I'm less sure about #18 Stanford jumping us should they beat Arizona, but it seems like the voters would be hard pressed to keep 5-0 #20 Mississippi State below a to this point underwhelming Frogs squad, even if they're only playing Kentucky.Game of the Week, Direct Impact - Leaper: #12 Ohio State @ #21 Nebraska. This seems to be as good of an upset pick as any, but as I promised not to mention the Big Ten unless absolutely necessary, I'll wrap it up.

Game of the Week, Conference Impact: #8 WVU @ #11 Texas. Well, duh. After the above-mentioned Defense Optional Bowl last week, WVU gets to face a real, live defense when they head to Austin. Well, sort of. Texas, despite the hype, wasn't exactly overly impressive last weekend in Stillwater, allowing 576 yards to the Pokes, including a stunning 275 on the ground. It's stunning. If OSU had any defense WHATSOEVER, they're maybe the best team in the country. Instead, 2-2. Thems the breaks. OSU backup QB JW Walsh was an efficient 18/27 for 301 yards and 2 scores; You'll recall that Geno Smith is coming off of a 45/51, 656 yard, 8 TD performance. He's completing 84% of his passes for the year. HOWEVAH, the WVU offense begins and ends with Smith; They're the 71st ranked rushing team in the country. Also, Geno Smith isn't a mobile QB by any stretch, and Texas has two future first round NFL pass rushers in Jackson Jeffcoat and Alex Okafor. Should be interesting. Texas' technique will be to run the ball and keep the WVU offense on the sidelines as much as possible, which should be feasible given the Mountaineers lack of a defense. If this becomes a shootout, you probably have to favor WVU, but I think you're looking at a more logical score in the 70-80 point range. This is the second game in the 5 headed beast that is the round robin schedule between Kansas State-OU-UT-WVU and TCU to decide the conference title. The loser isn't out of it, but the winner will be a lot closer to a possible NC bid. Oh, also, UT did THIS today. Keep your eyes peeled, Geno.

Game of the Week, National Impact: #5 UGA @ #6 USC. This game probably decides the lamb for the slaughter against Alabama come December in Atlanta. Gameday is there, too. I wanna hate Spurrier, but it's kind of awesome that he's been known to pee on Augusta National while playing a round. Did you know that the head coach at USC gets an automatic membership? Spurrier says, "take THAT, Condi!"

Game of the Week, Plain Ol' Hate: Boise State @ Southern Miss. The team that ruined our first BCS run against the team that crushed our BCS dreams shortly after we finally made it? RETRO HATE! You noobs are probably too young to remember that dreadful evening in Hattiesburg, but on the scale of gut punch TCU losses in the Patterson Era, it's every bit up there with Utah in 2008. And then, of course, the Kids Table BCS Bowl that Boise won on the lamest of lame trick plays. Guess we'll have to let our Big 12 entry and Rose Bowl win warm us at night...

Game of the Week - Oops, I Crapped My Pants (Placeholder for UT Chokejob when applicable): #14 Oregon State vs. Washington State. I was SO close to being right last week! Unfortunately, should Texas lose, it wouldn't qualify for OICMP status. Instead we have a VASTLY overrated Oregon State team. Let's face it - when the biggest reason you're making headlines is because your Coach takes you to In N Out after wins - INO, the only thing more overrated than Oregon State right now - and talks about "beaver juice" with a straight face, you're probably due a letdown game. The Fighting' Leaches have been pretty awful in year one, but don't they have to come around sometime? Yes? No? Eh, whatever. Only one week until aggy spits the bit against Louisiana Tech. Honorable Mentions: #9 Notre Dame vs. Miami, aggy @ Ole Miss.Game of the Week, Culture Clash: Aggy @ Ole Miss. Beautiful women in sun dresses vs. small town and suburbia women in maroon T shirts yelling in unison with with male cheerleaders? Yeah, they'll probably all blend together.

And now, a new addition...

The Most Unwatchable Game of the Week: Memphis (0-4) vs. Rice (1-4. That one is Kansas).I mean, as bad as TCU's offense has been in red zone situations, can we just blame it on Fuente's absence and bring him back? His 0-4 tenure in Memphis isn't winning over the locals. Seriously, you can come back! Honorable Mention: SMU (1-3) @ UTEP (1-4).

Well, last Saturday certainly didn't disappoint with all 3 of the conference games coming down to the wire and one of them quite controversially. I'd like to start by apologizing to both Baylor and West Virginia for grossly underestimating the explosiveness of their offenses. I thought the 52-28 prediction was a pretty lofty point total. Boy was I wrong. Also, I'd like to apologize to their defenses. I'm sorry that I assumed that FBS defensive starters could tackle. That part was embarrassing. I admittedly didn't watch any of the Tech/ISU game because that's a level of suck that I didn't want to lay my eyes on, but I know it was a close one that Tech pulled out 24-13. Iowa State had 189 yards against Tech, so I'm not really worried about them this week. And please, don't try to sell me on the "well Tech has the #1 defense in the country" BS. It's easy to stop a bunch of lousy offenses (just ask TCU...). The night cap looked like great one on paper between the Longhorns and the Cowboys in The House That T. Boone Built, and it didn't disappoint. Texas won 41-36 with a game winning TD drive led by a vastly improved David Ash, but let's be honest: Joe Bergeron fumbled and that could've gone against the horns. I'm okay with not overturning that call because it was pretty inconclusive as to who recovered it and where, but I'm sure the conspiracy theorists around here will assume DeLoss Dodds outbid T. Boone for the referees services in that game.

Overall it was incredibly entertaining weekend of football to watch with highly competitive Big 12 games, and I think it's only going to get better from here. Okay, maybe not better than the Baylor/WVU skeleton drill that broke out, but there should be some more entertaining football to come and we won't have to wait long to see it...

Kansas (1-3, 0-1) @ #7 Kansas State (4-0, 1-0) - Saturday, 11am, FX
This is not one of those entertaining Big 12 games that I just touted and said we would see. Pretty much pencil in every game involving the Jayhawks to not be worth seeing. They're dreadful. Will K State suffer a letdown following a bye week and an upset win in Norman against the Sooners? Of course not, and even if they do, it's Kansas and it won't matter. Bill Snyder himself could suit up at QB and K State would still beat Kansas. Kansas is Big 12 New Mexico. Final Score: Kansas State 38 - Kansas 6.

#17 Oklahoma (2-1, 0-1) @ Texas Tech (4-0, 1-0) - Saturday, 2:30pm, ABC
I'm pretty bummed out that this one falls at the same time as our game. I really want to see how OU responds to their loss at K State 2 weekends ago. Did Landry Jones learn how to play football again on the bye week? Is Tech's #1 ranked defense legit? I'm assuming the answer to both of those questions is no. OU is having major woes along their offensive line much like TCU is. The major difference is we have experience receivers to help bail us out. OU has 1 in Kenny Stills, and he likes to crossdress. All I can say is, thank you Bob Stoops and Co. for wanting to make Brandon Carter play DB. I'm sure you're already tired of seeing him on the ESPN highlight reel, but get used to it. Having said all that, I still think OU escapes the Hell-hole that is Lubbock with a victory. I don't think they win because they're still really good. I think they win because Tech still isn't that good. Final Score: OU 34 - Tech 21.#8 West Virginia (4-0, 1-0) @ #11 Texas (4-0, 1-0) - Saturday, 7pm, FOX
West Virginia brings their high flying offense and stifling defense...okay maybe just their high flying offense to Austin to take on an undefeated Longhorns team that is trying to reestablish themselves as a dominant force in college football. To be honest, I think UT is really close to being back to where they want to be, but they aren't quite there yet. Coming in to the season everyone thought UT would hang its hat on their defense, but that has not been the case. Injuries have plagued them, but more than anything they've been plagued by poor tackling like the rest of the conference. We've all seen what WVU brings to the table now after winning that shootout against Baylor. Geno Smith is a legit Heisman frontrunner, but if Baylor applies no pressure on QB's all season they won't win many more games at all despite how much they can score. UT's bookend DE's and future 1st round draft picks Jackson Jeffcoat and Alex Okafor could apply enough pressure to make Smith uncomfortable and keep WVU out of the endzone on a couple of drives. If not, they'll have to blitz because I don't think there are any DB's in the league that can guard Tavon Austin and Stedman Bailey for an extended amount of time. The UT offense, especially David Ash, has surprised people this season, and blue-chip Almost Frog Johnathan Gray seems to be coming into his own after a solid performance in some extended playing time against Oklahoma State. I think home field advantage and pass rush make all the difference here, and UT pulls off another shootout victory. Final Score: UT 49 - WVU 42.